Animal Kingdom - Tie for First?

Thursday, October 8 - Day 4

Animal Kingdom

Disney spares no expense in creating authentic looking places and spaces.  This area in "Asia" reminded me of the quaint village in China where Taylor and I stayed the night before visiting the Great Wall a few years ago.

"Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain" was first on our list for the day.

 People much older and taller than Quinn were nervous about this ride but he was all smiles.

No fear.

 Occasionally we rode together but most often were partnered up with the kids.

 Longest line of the day - waiting for the Dinosaur ride.

Ironically, when we came back to use our fast-pass later in the day, the line was a fraction of what it had been.  Throughout our time in the parks, we often consulted the real-time Disney app for wait times and it was usually accurate.  Technology is a game-changer is so many areas.  Notice the green band on Tanner's wrist (below).  Each member of the family wore a different color.  Our park passes were loaded onto the band along with the daily fast-passes.    In order to access them, we simply scanned them across Mickey's face as we entered an attraction.  Slick and another money-maker for Disney.  Photo packages could also be loaded onto the bands but we opted not to purchase park pictures.

 Elsie and Aaron were the lucky ones on Kali Rapids and got soaked!  Elsie was such a good sport as it took a while for her to dry out.  In the meantime, we scored awesome seats for the much anticipated show, "Festival of the Lion King".  All the dancing and signing and acrobatics made for a super awesome show - rightfully the favorite of all the parks.

 "Tree of Life"

After eating the picnic lunch we packed, we were off to the Flight of Wonder bird show.

Pangani Forest Exploration Trail

On the hillside you can spot a grayish-brown "moon" from the gorillas.  

 The kids especially loved watching the gorillas - large and small.

Jantzen, Quinn and Mom checking out the hippos

 Another worthwhile adventure was our time spent on the Kilimanjaro Safari.

Up close and personal with the giraffes.

 We had an awesome tour guide that shared a lot of interesting facts about the various animals.    After taking a walking tour of the Maharajah Jungle Trek and discovering the kimono dragon was not on display, Jantzen was bummed since he had done a big school report on one recently.

We sat in the bubble-zone during the Nemo Musical.  Another quality show. 

Tanner missed the family photo op at the end of the day because he was already on his way to the parking lot.  We are usually in a rush when we arrive in the morning and this day was no exception.  

Elsie/Minnie and Quinn/Mickey - sleeping soundly

After making dinner at the condo, swimming and watching HGTV together, it was bedtime.  The younger kids had their eyes on various souvenirs in the parks but we told them to hold-off until we could check out a souvenir shop off-site because their $20 would go much further elsewhere.  Sure enough, Quinn and Elsie were absolutely thrilled to finally purchase a Mickey and Minnie and have enough left-over for Beanie Boo's (who needs more stuffed animals?!).

Ah, one more day to go!  

Animal Kingdom may have tied with Epcot....